Stay Alert During Annual Enrollment: Guard Yourself, Know Your Choices, and Don’t Go It Alone

Medicare And You ™

Welcome back. Last month I said I would point out the warning signs of Annual Enrollment, and now the calls are starting to come in. The Annual Enrollment Period runs through December 7, and any changes you make will take effect on January 1, 2027. This is the time when deceptive sales tactics are most common, so it is worth talking about how to protect yourself, understand your coverage, and remember that you should never have to handle this process on your own.

The call you did not request.

Every Medicare beneficiary should remember this simple rule: if you did not ask for help and did not give anyone permission to contact you about Medicare, no one should be calling you. Medicare marketing rules bar agents, brokers, and plans from making unsolicited calls. If someone says your plan is “changing,” claims you “qualify for more benefits,” or asks you to “verify” your Medicare number, that is a serious compliance violation. Also remember that Medicare itself will never call unexpectedly to ask for your Medicare number, Social Security number, or bank details. Medicare does not sell anything.

What to do if you get the call.

Hang up. You do not owe a scam caller a courteous goodbye. Never give out your Medicare number, birth date, or any other personal information. Write down the date, time, phone number, and the name of the company the caller claimed to represent. Then report it. You can call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) or contact the Senior Medicare Patrol at 1-877-808-2468, a free program that helps stop fraud quickly. Every report helps protect you and your neighbors. And if you ever think you were moved into a plan you did not choose, call me right away. That can be corrected, and I will help you handle it.

Know your current coverage before you decide on a change.

The best way to resist a hard sell is to know exactly what you already have. Pull out your ANOC, the Annual Notice of Change I asked you to keep last month, and review your premium, copays, out-of-pocket maximum, and whether your doctors and prescriptions will still be covered in the coming year. Then look at the full picture: what your current plan will offer next year and what other plans available in your area provide. A plan that advertises attractive extras is not automatically better than one that quietly covers your doctors and medications at a lower cost.

A broker you can trust.

That is where a local, trustworthy broker should earn your confidence. A proper review should be respectful and unhurried. It should begin with your needs, not with a sales pitch. A good broker compares your current coverage with what the market offers for the year ahead, explains the differences in plain language, and tells you honestly when your current plan still works for you. You should never feel pressured, and you should never be asked to sign anything immediately.

That has been my standard since 2006, because a broker’s role matters. This is not a magazine subscription or a phone plan. This is your health coverage, and it deserves honesty, care, and someone who treats it that way.

Not only during Annual Enrollment.

Many people discover too late that the person who helped them enroll in the fall is nowhere to be found later on. That should not happen. Your broker should be available throughout the year, whether a claim is denied, the pharmacy says a drug is not covered, you move, lose a spouse, or simply have a question that is keeping you awake at night. Medicare does not stop being confusing after the enrollment period ends, and your support should not disappear either. If you are on a Medicare Advantage plan and something is not working once the new coverage year begins, the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period runs from January 1 through March 31 and allows one plan change. You do have options.

You are never alone.

Medicare can make capable people feel isolated, sitting at the kitchen table with a pile of mail and a ringing phone, unsure who to trust. You do not have to feel that way. Whether your question is simple or complicated, you deserve real answers from someone who knows you and will still answer the phone next year and the year after that.

About the Author:

Jim Schmidt has been a trusted Medicare advocate in Arizona since 2006. He never charges a fee for people who need help or reach out to him. Contact Jim anytime at 480-296-3900 or [email protected]

I do not offer every plan available in your area. Any information we provide is limited to the plans we do offer in your area. Please contact Medicare.gov or 1-800-MEDICARE to get information on all of your options.